The Male Breast Cancer Patient

Forget orange and black—this month is all about pink. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but we don’t need to tell you that: every sellable good you see is wrapped in a pink ribbon, your news feed is peppered with "Go Braless For Breast Cancer!" status updates, and you and your girlfriends are walking in honor of a fighting friend in your city's charity race. Overall, awareness is pretty female-centric. The results of a recent study, however, shed light on the other sex’s struggle with breast cancer, and the numbers are more startling than you might think.

Researchers analyzed more than 30 years of data on breast cancer patients, both female and male (who represent just 1% of all breast cancers) in order to determine the 5- and 10-year survival rates for each sex. Their results were published in the Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology. In all situations, the male breast cancer survival rates were consistently 10% or more below that of female breast cancer patients.

“Historically, stage by stage, the process of diagnosing male breast cancer is the same as in females,” explains Jame Abraham, MD, director of the breast oncology program at Cleveland Clinic (and who isn’t affiliated with the study.) The main difference, he says, is how it’s found. “Women are more routinely screened, especially as they age, or tested positive for genetic factors, so they usually show up in mammograms.” Men, on the other hand, usually walk in complaining of a strange lump in their chest. From then on, men see the same progression: ultrasound, lumpectomy, and yes, even a possible mastectomy.

The similarities don’t stop there—genetic factors that put women at high risk are also applicable to men. “If the mother is a BRCA gene carrier, there’s a 50% chance the son can carry that gene, too,” says Dr. Abraham. The same indications, such as strong family history of breast, ovarian, or pancreatic cancer, apply, but men should be sure to take both sides of their family into consideration. “If the father’s sister had breast cancer or dad’s brother had pancreatic cancer, that can affect them too,” he says.

The biological differences between male and women breast cancers have yet to be studied in depth, but Abraham suspects the disparity is probably due to lifestyle factors, like lack of screening and the time between noticing a problem and actually getting help. Share these 10 Ways To Stop Breast Cancer with the women and men in your family.

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